I’ve got a fairly decent size wine collection, but I wouldn’t call what I do with my bottles “cellaring.” That implies that I’m intentionally saving it for a future date when the wine has matured or perhaps become more valuable. The hundred or so bottles of good juice that are in various racks and shelves around my house are merely bottles I haven’t drunk yet. I’ll get to you soon enough, my pretties!
So I’ve never invested in a full cellar system or a large wine fridge, since I like to keep my favorite bottles within arms reach. But there’s nothing wrong with displaying your collection in an attractive manner, and that’s where the Lumi Wine Wall comes in. The designers behind Lumi have come up with a great idea to recycle the staves from used French and American oak wine barrels and use them as an attractive way to store and display your bottles. Thanks to the curve of the barrels, the ends of the staves sit flat and stable against the wall, but the middle of each plank protrudes a few inches from the mounting bracket to allow for a specific angle for each hole cut to hold the neck of seven bottles in each rack. The holes are cut to store the wine at the proper angle to keep the cork wet while holding the bottle firmly in place.
The storage system is flexible, allowing up to six separate staves on each mounting rack. That will hold 3 1/2 cases of wine. Y’know … at least a month’s worth. An LED lighting system is hidden behind each stave to illuminate your collection and turn your bottles into a work of art. Since the lighting is behind the staves, hopefully it won’t expose your wine to excess light, which would be bad. Lumi Wine Wall is still in the prototype phase, so I haven’t seen one in the wild to make sure that this is the case.
The management is committed to being a green company, so the basics tenets of their business include:
Using our basic materials efficiently and operating a re-use & recycle policy
Collecting all sawdust and composting it
Handcrafted in California
Keeping paper advertising, correspondence and administration to a minimum, using technology instead
Recycling packaging
Lumi is currently in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign, and there is still time to get in on the ground floor if you’re interested in investing. Retail pricing for the Lumi Wine Wall starter kit is projected to be about $150, so early investors still have a chance to get a bargain. Check them out!